Gairdner J. History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third: To which is Added the Story of Perkin Warbeck from Original Documents

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

340 APPENDIX.

NOTE

III.

THE EARL OF RIVERS.

{See

page 75.)

The two letters which follow are derived from the same

MS.

volume in the Record Office referred to in the previous

note.

Of the first of these letters, the signature alone is in

the Earl's handwriting; but the second is holograph. The

latter must have been written just before the meeting of

Parliament in January, 1478.

' Danyell, I pray you applye my worke well. And wher as I

appoynted

with

you last that the steyres of

hught

passe

schulbe

vj fote, and ye may in ony wise lete to be half a foote more, and I

schall reward you a cordyngly. Moreover take hede to the vice

that Maundy makes, and loke yef the foundacion and the wallis be

sufficiaunt, that the toret may rise xiiij fote from the lede, than lete

hym alone with his worke. And rather than ye schulde stande in

ony daunger, take som other avise, and sende me worde houghe ye

doo in all goodly hast. Ye will leve a rome afore the comyng in at

the yete in the newe wall, wher ye thynke it may be best seen, for

a skochon of the armez of Wodevile and Scalis and a Garter a

bought yt. Wright me as oftyn as ye can how ye doo; and Jesu

spede you.

' Wretyn at Middilton this Tuesday in Whisson weke.

'Your frend,

'A.

RIVIERES.

' I pray you goo to the Mote the soner by cause of this

wrightyng.

Addressed: ' To Daniell, maister mason

with the kyng, in alle

hast.'

More correctly,

haulepace,

a raised

floor

or dais.

WELSHMEN. 341

Master Chanceler and Dymok, I pray yow remembre wher is

best that I be loged thys parlement tyme, other at my plasse, or in

the Chanon Raw . . . .

my Lord Prynce is hows chal be kepin at

Westmester, and that I be porvayd for wher ye thynk good over.

If ye may get rome for iij or iiij men of thys contre, other in my

Lord Prynce is eleksyons or my Lord of York, for to be in the

parlement hows, I pray yow atte ye Dymok to get your self on

, for

thay of Yarmowtht have poynted ij of thayr own borgesses; and

allso kepe a rome for Robart Drevry. I pray you send me of your

tydyng[es],

and whethyr ye thynk best by suche a vysse as ye can

gette [that] I be at London the forst day of the parlement or nat;

and spek to Jorge and see that my parlement robes be made, and

with diligens delyvre me thys mesager agayn. Wrytyn at Walsyng

ham the xj day of Janeuer with the hand of your frend,

'A. RIVIERES.

Addressed; 'To Mr Moleneux, Chaunceler

to my Lord of York, and to

Andrew Dymmyk his attorn.'

NOTE

IV.

ANNUITIES TO WELSHMEN.

{Seepages 133, 219.)

The following minutes from the register of Richard's grants

(MS.

Harl. 433, f. 30) seem to show that a number of the

Welsh chieftains had earned the king's gratitude by taking his

part against Buckingham in the rebellion. The date, it will be

observed, is just after the rebellion was suppressed.

A word of doubtful reading occurs

here.

"On," i.e. one.

342 APPENDIX.

' Annuities. To Sir Thomas Bowles, 20 marks. To John Ap

Jenkyn, 20/. To William Lewes, 10 marks. To Morgan Gamage,

10 marks. To William Herbert of Ragland, 20/. To Robert Ap

Jenkyn,

IOOJ.

To Thomas Ap Morgan, 40 marks. To Thomas

Kemys of Shirehampton, icw. To Morgan Rede, 10 marks. To

Edward Ap Jenkyn, 10 marks. To John Morgan, 10 marks. To

Thomas Kemys of Kerwent, 100s. To Morys Leuee (?)

IOOJ.'

These are granted 'for term of their lives, to be perceived {re-

ceived) of the lordship of Uske in South Wales, by the receiver,

bailly, farmer, or other occupiers of the same for the time being,

at the feasts of Pasche {Easter) and St. Michael. Given the 12th

day of November, anno primo.'

'Annuities. John Vaghan, 40 marks. John Thomas, 10/.

Ric.

LI. Ap Morgan, ioor. David Philip, 100s. For term of their

lives,

to be perceived of the lordship of Bergevenny (Abergavenny)

by the receiver, bailly, farmer, or other occupiers for the time

being, at the feasts of Pasche and St. Michael, &c.'

'Annuities. To Hopkyn Ap Howel, 10/. To Philip Herbert,

20 marks. To William Herbert, squier for the body, 40 marks.

To John Hewes, 10 marks. To William Serjeaunt, 10 marks. Of

the lordship of Monmouth, for term of their lives, by the hands of

the receiver, bailly, farmer, or other occupiers for the time being,

at the feasts of Pasche and St. Michael, &c.'

'Annuities. To William Kemys, 10 marks, of Newport. To

Walter Endreby, 20 marks, of Kidwelly. To Walter Wynston,

ioor., of Ewes. For term of their lives, by the hands of the

receiver, bailly, or other occupiers there, &c, at the feasts of

Pasche and St. Michael/

NOTE

'PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMED IN KENT.'

(Seepage

147.)

The

proclamation referred

to is

entered

under

the

above

heading

in MS. Harl. 433, f. 128 b.

PROCLAMATION IN KENT. 343

'The King our sovereign lord, remembering that many and

divers of his true subjects of this his county of Kent, have now

late been abused and blinded by Sir John Gilford, Sir Thomas

Lewkenour, Sir William Hawte, knights; Edward Ponynges,

Richard Gilford, William Cheyney, Thomas Fenys, William

Brandon, John Wingfeld, Anthony Kene, Nicholas Gaynesford,

John Isley, Ralph Tikhill, Anthony Broun, John

Pympe, Robert

Brent, Long Roger, Richard Potter, Richard Fissher, Sir Markus

Hussy, priest, and other the king's rebels and traitors, which

imagined and utterly conspired the destruction of the king our said

sovereign lord's most royal person, the subversion of this his realm

and the common weal of the same; and many of his said subjects

of this his county of Kent, when they knew and understood their

said conspired treasons, left and forsook them, and as his true

subjects sithens have well and truly behaved them; for the which

the king's grace standeth and woll be to them good and gracious

sovereign lord, and willeth and desireth all his said true subjects

to put them in their effectual devoirs to take his said rebels and

traitors, and granteth that he or they that shall hap to take the

said Sir John Gilford, Sir Thomas Lewkenour, Sir William Hawte,

William Cheyne, Richard Gilford, or Reynold

Pympe, shall have

for each of them 300 marks or 10/. of land, and for everiche of the

other aforenamed 100/. or ten marks of land, and great thank of

the king's grace.

'And over this the king woll it be known that if any person

harbour, lodge, corofort, succour, or keep within his house, or

otherwise aid or resette wittingly any of the said traitors, and

disclose them not, nor bring them to the king in all goodly haste

possible after this proclamation, that then, he or they so harbouring,

aiding, comforting, succouring, resetting, or lodging them or any of

them, hereafter to be taken and reputed as the king's rebels and

traitors; and also that no man presume after this proclamation to

keep any goods or chattels of the said traitors, but them utter and

show to the king's commissioners in this his said county of Kent

assigned and appointed. And they that so truly will show it shall

' John.' This name is a correction interlined over the name ' Reynold,'

struck out.

The name ' Reynold' is here left uncorrected. See preceding note.

344 APPENDIX.

be well rewarded ; and they that do the contrary shall be punished

according to the law.

' And over this the king's highness is fully determined to see

due administration of justice throughout this his realm to be had,

and to reform, punish, and subdue all extortions and oppressions

in the same. And for that cause with all that at his coming now

into this his said county [of] Kent, that every person dwelling

within the same that find him grieved, oppressed, or unlawfully

wronged, do make a bill of his complaint and put it to his

highness, and he shall be heard and without delay have such

convenient remedy as shall accord with his laws ; for his grace is

utterly determined that all his true subjects shall live in rest and

quiet, and peaceably enjoy their lands, livelodes, and goods,

according to the laws of this his land, which they be naturally

born to inherit. And therefore the king chargeth and commandeth

that no manner man, of whatsoever condition or degree he be, rob,

hurt, or spoil any of his said subjects in their bodies or goods,

upon pain of death ; and also that no manner man make, pick, or

contrive any quarrel to other for any old or new rancour, hate,

malice, or cause, or offers make, upon pain of death, nor also take

man's meat, horsemeat, or any other victual or

stuff,

without he

pay truly therefor to the owners

thereof,

upon pain of lesing of his

horse, harness, and goods, and his body to prison at the king's will.

And over this, that no man trouble or vex any farmer or occupier

of any of the lands that appertained to the above-named rebels or

traitors otherwise than by the king's commandment or authority.

And that all such farmers and occupiers retain and keep still in

their own hands the revenues and money grown and to grow of the

said lands unto the time they know the king's pleasure in that

behalf.

And the king our said sovereign lord chargeth straitly all

his officers, ministers, and subjects within this his said county, to

resist and withstand all persons that woll attempt anything con-

trary this proclamation, and them take and surely keep in prison

unto they have from the king's highness otherwise in commandment

for their delivery.'

SONG

OF THE LADY BESSY. 345

NOTE

VI.

THE

SONG OF THE LADY BESSY.

(See

pages 222, 241.)

A very curious account of the conspiracy of the Stanleys

against Richard is contained in an old metrical composition,

commonly known as the Song of the Lady Bessy. The author

of this poem appears from internal evidence to have been

Humphrey Brereton, a servant of Lord Stanley, and the date

at which it was composed must have been some time in the

course of Henry

VII.

's reign, or perhaps in the beginning of

Henry VIII.'s. Unfortunately, it contains numerous ana-

chronisms, besides some facts or circumstances which are

certainly due to the writer's imagination; moreover, having

been probably handed down by oral tradition for a long time

before it was committed to writing, we have two different

versions of the poem with material variations in the narrative

There is, however, certainly a great deal of truth in the poem,

which it is not altogether easy to separate from the fantastic

additions which the author has made to the plain and simple

facts.

His object is to represent the Lady Bessy or Princess

Elizabeth, whom Henry engaged to marry, as the chief organiser

of the confederacy against King Richard.

The poem begins by relating how she began to ' make her

moan' to Lord Stanley (called by anticipation the Earl of

One of these is contained in the editions printed by Heywood in 1829

and

by the Percy Society (Early English Poetry, vol. xx.) in 1847. The

other

will be found in Harl. MS. 367 f. 89, and is printed from a somewhat

later

copy in Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, vol. iii. pp. 319 sq.

346 APPENDIX.

Derby

), kneeling before him, reminding him that it was owing

to her father King Edward that he had been married to 'a

duchess of high degree'—meaning by this a countess, viz.

Margaret of Richmond—that it was King Edward who gave

him Harden lands and Moules Dale, and who gave his brother

Sir William the Holt Castle, Bromefield, and Chirkland in fee,

and made him Chamberlain of Cheshire. The whole country

was at the disposal of the family, and the forest of Delamere to

hunt in. By these obligations she implored him to remember

the banished Richmond in Brittany beyond the sea, and to aid

in restoring him as King Henry. To this the lord replies, ' Go

away, Bessy. Fair words oft make fools fain.' But Bessy

entreats him to remember how King Edward on his death-bed

at Westminster called to him her uncle Richard and Robert of

Brackenbury and James Tyrell, whom he sent into the West

country 'to fetch the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence'

(strange confusion of names!)

'The Duke of York should have been prince

And king after my father free;

But a baleful game was then (them?) among,

When they deemed these two lords to die,' &c.

And what was worse, they were not buried ' in St Mary's, in

church or churchyard or holy place.'

Lord Stanley desires her to urge the matter no more, as, if

King Richard knew, she would be killed or thrown into prison.

Bessy replies that there were no more present but herself and

him, and she goes on to say that King Edward one day at

Westminster was studying deeply 'a book of reason' which

brought tears to his eyes, and none of his lords durst speak to

him. But she knelt before her father and desired his blessing;

This one anachronism we have corrected throughout, though there are

certainly many others in the poem. The author is so persistent in it that

he makes even Stanley's brother Sir William ask—

' How fareth that lord, my brother dear,

That lately was made the Earl of Derbye?'

SONG OF THE LADY BESSY. 347

on which he pressed her in his arms and set her in a window.

Weeping he gave her the book, admonishing her to keep it

well and show it to none but Lord Stanley, relying upon him

for aid:—

' For there shall never son of my body be gotten

That shall be crowned after me;

But you shall be queen and wear the crown:

So doth express the prophecy.'

She therefore petitioned Lord Stanley for men and two or three

good captains. But Lord Stanley is still obdurate, and never

will agree,

'For women ofttime cannot feign,'

and if he began treason against King Richard, the Eagle's foot

would be pulled down all over London.

Bessy, however, has still stronger reasons:

'Oh, father Stanley, to you I make my moan;

For the love of God remember thee.

It is not three days past and gone

Since my uncle Richard sent after me

A bachelor and a bold baron,

A doctor of divinity,

And bade that I should to his chamber gone,

His love and his leman that I should be;

And the queen that was his wedded feere

He would her poison and put away.

So would he his son and heir;

Christ knoweth he is a proper boy!'

But she would rather be burned in a tun on Tower Hill than

consent to his desire, or endanger the life of 'that good woman.'

She therefore again begs Stanley to have pity on her and the

Earl of Richmond.

'And the rather for my father's sake,

Which gave thee the Isle of Man so free.

He crowned thee with a crown of lead;

He holp thee first to that degree;

He set thee the crown upon thy head,

And made thee the lord of that country.'

348 APPENDIX.

To this Stanley still replies that King Richard is his lord,

and he will not betray him; and Bessy is led to tell him that

his loyalty will be ill rewarded, for if Richard might gain his

end, Stanley himself would not live three years. He had

declared to herself at Sandal Castle under a tree (curious that

he should have taken his niece into confidence in such a

matter!) that no branch of the Eagle (Stanley's device) should

fly in England, nor any of the Talbots or of their lineage to

the ninth degree, but he would hang or behead them all. She

therefore reminds him:—

'Your brother dwelleth in the Holt Castle.

A noble knight, forsooth, is he.

All the Welshmen love him well.

He may make a great company.

Sir John Savage

is your sister's son.

He is well beloved within his shire.'

And Sir Gilbert Talbot also would join them against King

Richard. [At Sheffield Castle he could muster 10,000 men

and give them three months'

wages.

And Lord Stanley himself

could bring 10,000 'eagle feet' to fight

Again Lord Stanley tells her to forbear. He is sure King

Richard will not betray him. It would be a sin in him to

break his oath of allegiance, and the child unborn might rue

the day he did so. It was useless to persuade him.

On this ' her colour changed as pale as lead,' she tore her

golden hair and fell down in a swoon. When she recovered

Of Sir John Savage the Harl. MS. adds:

'He may make fifteen hundred fighting men

And all his men white hoods do give, ('do give,' i.e.

cause to be given.)

He giveth the pickes on his banner bright,

Upon a field never backed was he.'

This is not in Mr Heywood's version but is taken from the Harl. MS.

Bishop Percy's Folio gives 1000 men and 1000 eagle feet only. These

numbers may have been nearer the truth, but later in the ballad the same

Folio credits 'the Earl of Derby' more than once with 20,000 and Sir

William with 10,000.

SONG OF THE LADY BESSY. 349

she spoke of throwing herself into the Thames. But Stanley,

deeply moved, told her, as he saw she did not feign, that he

had thought of the matter as much as she had done; only

many a man had been undone by trusting women. Hoping,

therefore, that she would not betray him, he took counsel with

her how to send letters to Richmond. He was in doubt even

of a scribe; but Bessy informed him that her father had caused

a London scrivener to give her and her sister Lady Wells

instruction how to read and write, and she could indite letters

as well as any secretary, either in English, French, or Spanish.

He accordingly arranges to meet her that night in her cham-

ber alone, bringing with him only his trusty esquire Humphrey

Brereton. By the time appointed the lady was prepared for

him with pen, ink, and paper. Stanley then dictated to her, first

a letter to his son Lord Strange at Lathom Castle, telling her:—

'When I parted with him his heart did change.

From Lathom to Manchester he rode me by.

Upon Salford bridge I turned my horse again.

My son George by the hand I hent.

I held so hard forsooth, certain,

That his foremost finger out of the joint went.

I hurt him sore; he did complain.

These words to him then did I say:

"Son, on my blessing, turn home again.

This shall be a token another day."

Bid him come like a merchant of Farnfield,

Of Coopland or of Kendal, whether that it be

And seven with him and no more else,

For to bear him company.

Bid him lay away watch and ward,

And take no heed to minstrels' glee.

Bid him sit at the lower end of the board

When he is amongst his meany;

His back to the door, his face to the wall,

That comers and goers shall not him see.

Bid him lodge in no common hall,

But keep him unknown right secretly.'